Abstract
In further documenting the systematic income- and qualification-based differences between two-earner, higher-income families and their single-earner and jobless, low-income peers, this chapter hones in on parents’ post-partum employment transitions and long-term employment trajectories. The chapter starts with a concise overview of Romanian labour market conditions and employment trends, outlining different forms of labour precariousness, including long working hours and underdeclared and undeclared labour market participation. The discussion then moves on to present in detail leave-taking decisions and post-partum employment transitions, revealing qualification-based differences in post-partum employment among mothers especially. The third section hones in on long-term inactive families’ employment prospects, showing how early motherhood in the context of low educational attainment and social exclusion lead not only to long-term inactivity, but also severe poverty, financial dependency and gendered subordination. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the crucial relevance of job quality and local labour market conditions in shaping working and non-working parents’ post-partum employment trajectories.
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- 1.
For a useful periodisation for the Romanian context, see especially Kovács et al. (2017).
- 2.
Data from the 2010 ad-hoc module of the labour force survey reports mean monthly earnings only for companies with more than 10 employees, excluding much of the public sector as well as small businesses, i.e. some 900,000 employees.
- 3.
It is noteworthy, however, that part-time employment rates are somewhat higher than in neighbouring Hungary, for instance.
- 4.
Romania stands out among its post-socialist peers with this low figure, which typically stood at 20% in the wealthiest post-socialist nations of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia and was as high as 50% in Latvia. Though the authors do not suggest it, this reported 9% of total wages might be the result of under-reporting the actual value of envelope wages.
- 5.
Those with primary education reported a median saving rate of −17.3% and those with upper secondary education a median saving rate of −4.9%. No data were reported for those with tertiary education.
- 6.
Most EU member states tend to have relatively homogenous median saving rates by level of urbanization, with very small differences between rural inhabitants and city dwellers. Romania and Croatia stand out with a similar pattern in which rural dwellers are notably worse off than their peers in small towns and cities.
- 7.
GYES, short for gyermekgondozási segély, is the universal flat-rate childcare benefit that mothers in Hungary can claim during the first three years of their children’s lives. This Hungarian mother is referring to the Romanian employment- and earnings-related parental leave programme by using the Hungarian acronym for the universal, thus not equivalent cash benefit. Hungarian mothers with relatives living in Hungary did refer to the Romanian leave programme by using the most enduring and common Hungarian childcare-related benefit, the GYES.
- 8.
Olga had long been single when she decided to have a child and raise her alone. It was her strong desire to have a child of her own, regardless of partnership status, as well as the absence of any family to help her that formed the context for her choice to spend as much time with her daughter as possible rather than delegating care responsibilities to enable better paid employment.
- 9.
Unfortunately, her husband was not available for an interview, therefore his narrative regarding this event is missing.
- 10.
It remains unclear how this option was enacted given that the law prohibits employers from firing those returning from leave for six months and the receipt of unemployment benefit being contingent upon having been made redundant.
- 11.
The families in the study who had no mortgage were typically those who were living in a self-contained flat (sometimes as small as a single room) in their parents’ house or shared a flat with one of the grandparents. This was quite common among little and medium-educated parents in the study. Indeed, 13 families of the 49 had such living arrangements at the time of the interviews and the one highly educated couple among these 13 was already in the process of building their own family home. In contrast, the couples where at least one parent had higher education all lived in their own—typically mortgaged—home.
- 12.
The Romanian term used was patron, meaning investor or entrepreneur, but with the term emphasising social status arising from owning a business and giving jobs to others rather than a knack for business.
- 13.
The Hungarian term used was feketén dolgozni, i.e. literally working black. It refers to undeclared labour market activity.
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Kovács, B. (2018). Parents’ Employment Trajectories: Two Worlds of Work-Care Experiences. In: Family Policy and the Organisation of Childcare. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78661-2_8
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